Tag: Yukio Hatoyama Taxes

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama failed to declare 72 million yen in income from stock sales in 2008.

Hatoyama sold more than 150,000 shares in 10 different stocks, including those listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The stock gains also were not mentioned in his income report for 2008. However it is required to be submitted under law as it is mandatory for Diet members to disclose their salaries, assets and other sources of income.

His office has since corrected the failure and paid the tax. It also has amended the report and submitted a corrected version to the secretariat of the House of the Representatives Monday, a Hatoyama aide said.

A comparison of post-general election asset reports submitted in September 2005 and asset reports of the Hatoyama Cabinet on Oct. 23 show that Hatoyama sold 151,190 shares of 10 stocks, including those listed on the TSE’s First Section.

The stocks are worth about 124 million yen or $1,371,682.46 USD when calculated based on Friday’s closing prices. In his income report submitted in April, Hatoyama did not declare profits from stock sales.

If dividends and profits from stock sales are obtained by transactions through the shareholder’s “specific account” that is supervised by a brokerage firm, and the tax is collected at source, there is no need to report the dividends and stock profits. Transactions that do not go through the “specific account” should be reported after filing a tax return.

Acknowledging the tax failure, Hatoyama’s office said: “We corrected it and paid the tax. Before the stock certificates of listed companies went electronic in January, we sold the stocks [in question] following the advice of a brokerage firm. After finding that we had failed to declare income when we filed a tax return, we corrected the tax return report immediately and submitted it.”